A great value all-rounder: Abus MoDrop MIPS review

There are many mountain bike purchases affected by false economy. Instead of buying one expensive thing that does many jobs, you buy several cheaper ones for different situations, quickly adding up to more than the price of the expensive one. The Abus MoDrop MIPS has entered the conversation.

Case in point - my garage full of cycling helmets, I had one for every type of riding until I binned them all off and just bought one good one (plus obviously another for road, XC, and a downhill full-face). The Abus MoDrop MIPS promises to be an off-road all-rounder with the additional protection of MIPS for under £100. Will it empty your helmet shelf?

The Abus MoDrop MIPS is a fully featured helmet that undercuts rivals by more than a bikepark uplift ticket – a great value all-rounder.

What’s good?

While not being particularly vital to the way it protects your head, the Abus MoDrop MIPS looks and feels like a very well-made helmet – from the sturdy straps and fasteners to the shiny moulded lower shell, which also protects the often-exposed bottom edge of the helmet from knocks and scrapes in your car boot.

Fitment can be tailored using the muti-directional adjustable retention system, which moves up and down at the back of your head to allow for a comfortable position to be found, before ratcheting it up tight to keep it in place. A large cutout here means it’s ponytail compatible too.

Once tight the helmet grips onto your head evenly without any pinch points and feels so secure the chin strap almost seems unnecessary (although of course, it is). Even when you’ve clipped it up using the squeeze and release buckle it’s easy to forget it’s there, thanks to clever strap distributors that route the webbing around your ear rather than meeting at a point below it.

Coverage seems good, particularly around the front and temples areas, but it doesn’t go quite as deep around the back as an enduro helmet like the Fox Dropframe. There is a recessed hole for a QUIN sensor though, which connects to your phone via Bluetooth and can detect a crash, before notifying specified contacts who can then come and help. A useful addition if you ride alone.

The peak is long without encroaching on your vision, giving a good amount of shade and branch protection while riding. If you find it getting in the way, it tilts up high enough to fit a pair of goggles underneath.

Do this and you’ll block three of the six front-mounted vents (there are eight around the back too) and inhibit the airflow. On the whole, ventilation is good, and the front openings have an internal bug mesh, which is a great feature, particularly if like me you’ve had a horsefly stuck between your lid and your head and have no interest in repeating the experience.

The standout feature on this helmet of course is the MIPS impact protection system, which claims to give additional protection from rotational injuries, such as when your head hits the ground at an angle. It does so by allowing the outer EPS layer to move a few degrees while the inner plastic shell stays firmly attached to your head.

What’s okay?

I’ve (thankfully) not crash-tested the MoDrop (…yet) but any additional safety features are always welcome. As with all things, this comes with compromises – in this case, those couple of degrees of movement can make the helmet feel a bit wobblier than you’re used to, even though it’s securely attached to your head. I’ve had a couple of MIPS helmets now and they all do this, and you do get used to it.

The other thing MIPS adds is a small amount of weight – about 40g compared to the non-MIPS Abus MoDropmodel, which is not really worth writing home about, particularly as this large version is only 390g. My long-suffering IXS Trigger AM weighs more than that and doesn’t have MIPS. Oddly though the distribution of weight in the Abus feels comparatively nose heavy, but this is only really noticeable if I swap between the two.

It could also have something to do with the big swathe of padding that runs from temple to temple across my forehead. It feels very comfortable against my skin but on hot rides it can get pretty sweat-logged, which will also add grams to the front of the helmet.

The MoDrop feels warmer overall on my head and I think that’s to do with the extra plastic in the construction of the MIPS layer – there’s just a lot more of it, forming a stronger basket than you get in a non-MIPS helmet. Not the end of the world, but worth noting if you have a hot head.

One last small whinge - my Trigger AM also has a Fidlock closure, which can be a bit of a Marmite topic, but I love it and normal squeeze-together buckles now feel like a backwards step.

Any negatives?

A height adjustable visor with a goggle dock is great but there’s nowhere for sunglasses to go, which seems a misstep in a trail helmet, where you’re more likely to wear the latter than the former.

There also seems to be a lot more choice of colour scheme in the non-MIPS helmet – here we only get black, copper or grey, while the normal MoDrop gets loads of flash colours including one scheme called “Dusky Camel”, which is excellent.

More items to consider

Good for: Basically everything

Bad for: "Mate are those drinking straws in your lid?"

Good for: Premium build quality and protection

Bad for: Getting mistaken for a GMBN presenter

Good for: Second-to-none coverage

Bad for: Riders with abnormally large ears

How the product was tested

The Abus MoDrop and I have ridden everything from local XC with my family to trail centres like Afan and Cwmcarn and some techier stuff at Bikepark Wales, the Forest of Dean and Flyup 417. Weather conditions have ranged from freezing rain to the hottest day on record in the UK, and the terrain has spanned everything from velvety blue singletrack to huge dirt doubles I really should have grown out of at 19.

Adam Binnie is the Commercial Content Editor and reviewer for WhatsTheBest, specialising in bikes, fitness, cars, parenting and cooking.

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